At least 20 people have been killed in a fresh wave of communal violence sweeping western Myanmar, a Rakhine state spokesman said Thursday, adding the death toll could ultimately more than double.

"At least 20 people (both Buddhist and Muslim) have been killed in clashes since October 21. The death toll can reach about 50," Myo Thant told AFP.

A new wave of sectarian violence in western Myanmar has left five people dead and dozens injured in recent days, triggering another exodus of Muslims to emergency camps, officials said Thursday.

Hundreds of homes have been burned in the fresh outburst of unrest in Rakhine state, where Buddhist-Muslim clashes have killed at least 95 people since June and displaced tens of thousands, according to the authorities.

Hundreds of Buddhist university students rallied Wednesday against Muslims in a flashpoint city at the center of communal tensions in western Myanmar, a protest leader told AFP.

The protest in Sittwe, capital of Rakhine state, followed overnight violence in nearby towns as a fresh outbreak of unrest between ethnic Rakhine and Muslim Rohingya stretched into a third day.

Praying with a Koran on his knees in a mud-strewn camp, Rohin Mullah is one of thousands of Muslims uprooted by sectarian bloodshed in Myanmar. But the former monk's story is far from normal.

Born a Buddhist, he fell in love with a girl on the other side of the religious divide -- a member of the Rohingya minority group shunned by Myanmar society at large.

Three people have been killed in a fresh outbreak of communal violence between Muslim Rohingya and Buddhists in Myanmar's western Rakhine state, a local official said Tuesday.

"We got the information that three people, an ethic Rakhine man and two Muslim women, were killed at Pandeinkone village during yesterday's (Monday's) clashes," Hla Thein, Rakhine State chief justice told AFP.

Myanmar President Thein Sein said Sunday he had overcome his fear of the media after a recent grilling on the BBC's "Hardtalk" show that he admitted was tougher than expected.

"His questions were really difficult. I hadn't heard about Hardtalk," the former general told reporters in the capital Naypyidaw when asked about his interview by the BBC's Stephen Sackur during a landmark U.S. visit last month.

Myanmar's president blocked a world Islamic body from opening an office in the country, an official said Monday, bowing to rallies against its efforts to help Muslims in unrest-hit Rakhine state.

"The president will not allow an OIC office because it is not in accordance with the people's desires," said an official from Myanmar leader Thein Sein's office, after thousands of monks held the latest protests against the Organization of the Islamic Conference in two major cities on Monday.

Several thousand monks took to the streets of Myanmar's second-largest city Friday to protest against a world Islamic body's efforts to help Muslim Rohingya in strife-hit Rakhine state, organizers said.

Holding banners reading "No OIC in Myanmar", the monks gathered in Mandalay to urge the government to block a plan by the 57-member Organization of the Islamic Conference to open an office in the country.

Hundreds of Buddhist women protested Wednesday in western Myanmar against the presence of stateless Rohingya Muslims in the violence-hit region, an organizer said.

The demonstrators urged the Organization of the Islamic Conference to stop its assistance to Rohingya in Rakhine state, where tensions have been running high since deadly Buddhist-Muslim clashes broke out in June.

About 100 monks demonstrated in Myanmar's main city Yangon on Friday against attacks by Muslim mobs targeting Buddhist temples and homes in neighboring Bangladesh.

Holding signs with slogans including "The Earth Is for Everyone, Not Only for Muslims" and "Stop Insulting Buddhism", the robed monks staged a short protest outside the Bangladesh embassy in the former capital.